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Food for thought: analysing the internal and external school food environment

Equity Focus

This study targets the investigation of the availability of school meals inside and outside secondary schools in Ireland.

Case Summary

The project examined food availability within and outside of post-primary schools in Ireland. An adapted version of the international 2009/10 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) school level questionnaire was used to describe the internal and external school food environment, including sources and types of foods, and food premises in close proximity to the school. We also describe variations in these environments by geography (urban or rural), by disadvantage (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in School (DEIS) or non DEIS status) by gender of the school (single sex or mixed) and by presence or absence of a school healthy eating policy. Overall, there were more healthy food options available at schools that had a healthy eating policy in place. Positive findings were that bottled water was available in the majority of schools (89.3 per cent), fruits were available in over half the schools (53.6 per cent) and vegetables/salads were available in just over a third of the schools (33.9 per cent). However, these findings also illustrate the need for improving the availability of healthy foods in many schools and decreasing unhealthy food provision, such as soft drinks and confectionary, which were available in 52 and 60 per cent of schools, respectively.

Lessons Learned

• The results suggest that it would be helpful to work with the relevant stake-holders to increase healthier choices available within the school and our data could also be considered in local planning to ensure the healthy choice is the easier choice for school children.

LINK TO CASE STUDY